The following is from a conversation I had with Helga Jakobson just before the Assiniboine Park Conservatory closed this past spring. To see the artistic product of her research, thinking, and recording so far, check out her show, Sympoietic Sound, now at aceartinc. until December 7th.

FULL: What drew you to making work about the closing of the Conservatory?

Helga Jakobson: I started the project because I was so attracted to the layered narrative of the space. We’ve made a building for the plants, and they took over and crumbled it. It’s brought out all kinds of very complicated feelings. Until a week ago, the place was well respected, but then people started snapping the massive plantain fronds, coming in and stealing plants — bringing in garbage bags trying to take full plants, or just huddling things under their coats. It’s like watching how people behave when they’re grieving the loss of their family members, getting into arguments over who gets what. It’s been quite heartbreaking for the people who work here, because they know all of these plants and can see the damage.

Maybe you’ve seen Mangie C’s bright, metallic shapes glimmer off the ears of some fashionable Winnipeger, each piece its own tiny sculpture, organic and yet still. When Mangie makes jewelry, she thinks about fun. She says, “I think, ‘Could you wear this on a night out and feel really good about it?’”

I pull up to Mangie’s West End home in the middle of the day in the middle of March, and she’s ready for me with a smoothie. We chat at a table by the window in the dining room she’s split into her workspace. Both a little nervous at first, we ease into the interview with stories from trips we’ve taken, descriptions of our favourite things to eat for breakfast. By the time I’m getting set to leave, we’re giggling over the funny dolls she keeps on the dresser off her bedroom, and I’m going through her personal jewelry collection piece by piece. We’re fast friends.

FULL: What got you into making jewelry?

Mangie C: I started in 2012. I was in my third year of university and getting pretty bored of the books — I needed a creative outlet. I stumbled across a Christmas church sale and talked to a woman who made jewelry. I looked into it and found classes with a jewelry designer starting the next week. I worked with her for three years and learned the basics.

FULL: What helpful skills did you learn in those classes?

MC: I learned how all the tools work, and which ones are the most necessary. I try to be a minimalist with my tools.

FULL: What would you say is your favourite tool?

MC: My ball-peen hammer. It’s a polished, spherical steel hammer you use to make indents and patterns on metal. When I started hammering, I was really good at it, which is probably why I like it so much. It’s about using your eyes and knowing where the indents need to go.

FULL: How did you transition from making jewelry as a creative outlet to running it as a business?

MC: I started wearing my jewelry around, posting things sometimes, and people would ask where they could buy it. I felt shy about it at first, but decided to try it as a business. It’s still surreal to me that people want to put my work on their bodies.

FULL: What’s been helpful for you in terms of expanding your business? How did you get from selling to friends and people you know to where you are now?

MC: When I first started, the markets were super helpful getting me in touch with other people in Winnipeg. I was able to meet people. Selling at different stores across Canada has also expanded my business. Wholesaling is intense, you have to make a lot of product. But it’s helped me build a consistent income.

FULL: What inspires you? What does feeling good mean to you in terms of translating that into a design? Do you research, or are you pretty intuitive?

MC: I make things that I want to wear. With my earlier collections, I was coming out of university with a minor in Classics. I was inspired by ancient civilizations like the Greeks and Romans. My last collection was more inspired by experience. I did a lot of travelling last year, and spent time snorkelling in Honduras. I would go snorkelling every day, just swimming around until I found a colony of fish in the coral. I’d float on top and study it. The shapes and the ocean inspired the wavy-ness of the last collection.

FULL: What does an average day look like for you?

MC: I try my best to wake up early. 8 o’clock is my favourite time to wake up. I go through my morning routine, have my granola bowl, and get to work. I usually plan out what I have to do for the day the night before. I work until lunch time, eat a quick lunch, and then work again until 6 o’clock. I work pretty long days, and sometimes it’s challenging to stay focused — it’s easy to get distracted by snacks. My boyfriend moved in, and that’s made things easier. He works eight to six, and when he comes home, it’s time to stop working. It gives me a nice structure.

FULL: How do you feel about lists? Are you good at finishing them?

MC: I love lists. I’m pretty ambitious, but I’m not harsh on myself. I just tell myself to do my best. Sometimes I start worrying about all the things I should be doing, but the other half of my brain goes, “Do what you can. That’s literally all you can do.”

FULL: What kinds of creative things did you do as a kid?

MC: I was an only child, so I kept myself occupied with crafts. When I was in the third grade, I made sketches of houses. My mom would take me to show homes, and I’d look at the blueprints, then design my dream home. I also loved drawing clothes and shoes. I never designed jewelry as a kid, but I loved designing.

FULL: You’ve been doing this for awhile, so I’m curious what parts of it are still exciting and new for you. What are you focused on right now?

MC: I love styling shoots and putting them together. My first shoot was with Meg Kroeker. We collaborated on a tapestry for it, and spent a lot of time together. It was a special experience. With the last few shoots, I’ve been experimenting with taking my own photos. I’m trying to learn how to use my camera better, how to create an image. It’s kind of a new hobby for me. I’m also trying to show more diversity in photos. Growing up, I saw one type of beauty a lot, and that’s something I want to challenge through the work I do.

As a kid, I was one of the few Asian people at my school. It wasn’t until years later that I realized how much it affected me not to be surrounded by people of my own culture. Lunches were the most apparent. My mom would pack me sushi or leftovers from home, and people would comment. I just wanted fruit snacks and white bread sandwiches. I spent a long time putting my culture to the side, but I’m trying to embrace it more.

FULL: You talked about being inspired by your studies in Classics in your early collections, do you feel inspired by your Asian culture as well?

MC: Not yet, but it’s something I want to explore.

I’m mostly trying to trust my instincts and my taste. I want to keep my sense of style and artistic integrity. There’s definitely days when I’m designing and I feel confused about where to go. I didn’t do a spring collection this year, because I wasn’t sure what direction to go in, and I wanted to learn more skills. That’s the beauty of running your own business. If you have the ideas, do it, if you don’t have them right now, you can’t force it.

I’m always trying to learn more skills. Right now I’m working on wax carving. I’m lucky that I know people who know a lot about jewelry. I learn from them, and the internet is a really cool resource. I don’t like to start a new aspect until I’ve done everything I can with one skill, but I’m excited to be expanding my skills.

I saw Hannah Doucet’s work for the first time in a group show last spring at La Maison des artistes. Two of her works caught my eye in particular. The first was a stop motion video of her head as a beach ball, inflating and deflating infinitely. The second, a life size recreation of her naked form, photographed and printed on fabric, then stitched together and laid out on plexiglass like some unstuffed teddy bear — more than a photograph, but still frustratingly two-dimensional. That’s what I love most about Hannah’s work. It points out, explores and challenges the limitations of photography, while never fully resolving them.

Hannah continues to play with these ideas in her latest show in PLATFORM’s gallery 2. Entitled “I wondered when my body would deflate,” the show centres around an illness Hannah had between the ages of 8 and 10, which led to her losing her hair. Just before the show opened last week, we sat down in her studio to chat about the work.

Chef Ben Kramer’s never been one to shy away from an unfamiliar situation. After championing local and sustainable ingredients at the Dandelion Eatery, he moved on to revolutionizing the food services program at the University of Winnipeg in 2009. He took sad, overpriced and over-packaged cafeteria food, and started making everything from scratch, using low-cost, locally-sourced ingredients wherever possible.

Since leaving the university, Chef Kramer’s continued to break new ground. He now runs his own catering business, with help from fellow chef, Hank Mitchell, hosting dinners in private homes and even a barn or two. He was instrumental in getting Table for 1200, Canada’s longest and largest dinner table, off the ground and running. And he’s been part of Mandel Hitzer and Joe Kalturnyk’s project RAW:almond since it first started up in 2013.

In the last week of January, I had the chance to photograph Chef Kramer alongside other RAW chefs prepping at Kitchen Sync, then plating and serving down on the river later that night. The following week, we met for coffee at The Tallest Poppy to talk more about his work with RAW:almond.

It came together during a quiet winter in 2012. There wasn’t much snow at the Falcon Ridge Ski Slopes, and a number of musicians were working in the rental shop, kitchen, and around the slopes. Emily Christie, the eldest daughter of the Christie/Hamilton family, who have owned the resort for the past twenty years, says, “It was a music saturated year. We had this tight group of musicians, and they would be jamming every night after work. Usually our busiest time at the ski hill is over winter break, but it was such bad snow, we couldn’t even open over Christmas. That was pretty devastating. We had all these staff lined up who were already out, so we came up with the idea to have a one day festival with an amazing line up of in-house talent. It was so fun and a ton of people came. We ended up doing it again the next year. Every year we would add on some little part.”

The New Music Festival begins on January 27th, and on Sunday, January 28th, Winnipeg pianist Madeline Hildebrand will be taking the stage at the Centennial Concert Hall alongside international pianists Vicky Chow, Jenny Lin, Jonas Sen, and composer Philip Glass. The five will perform The Complete Piano Etudes, a set of twenty pieces composed by Glass. Each performer will take the stage twice to play a consecutive set of two etudes, and their performances will be preceded and followed by a panel discussion, alongside a showcase of new music installations in the lobbies during intermission.

A few weeks before the performance, I visit Madeline in the home she shares with her partner, Steve Ackerman, to talk more about her work with the Piano Etudes and the New Music Festival.

It’s a crisp and overcast Saturday morning when I pull up to the house Lane Delmonico shares with her partner Ted Barker. His Oma and Opa once owned it, and now they rent it from Ted’s mom.

Lane welcomes me through the door, leading me to her kitchen for coffee. She’s laid out fruit on a platter for us, and I completely forget to help myself to it, even though I want to. I’m absorbed by our conversation instead. She asks if I’d like a plain cup of coffee or latte style and steams milk for me at a small espresso machine next to the fridge.

We sit in the sunroom. More than a dozen of the sparkly glazed studs Lane is known for are laid out on a heavy tile. We drink our coffees, chatting about teaching, and the time Lane spent in France, and how important creativity is to our sense of purpose, and so on.

Later, as I get my things together to leave, Lane thanks me for what must be the third time, and asks if I’m a hugger.

Winter can get a bit of a bad rap when it comes to trying to dress yourself. Winter in Winnipeg generally can get a bit of a bad rap. And I get it, I do, it’s hard to feel cute or like yourself when every outfit and inch of exposed flesh either has to be bundled under a huge coat or subjected to an icy blast the moment you set food out the door.

But, like most things in life, good can come bundled in with the bad. My friend Amos calls winter “a time for contemplation,” when meticulously putting on each protective layer can feel like a meditative act, and removing them, a catharsis. Elsa adds, “It’s very acceptable to retreat within yourself in the winter time.”

And Winnipeg winters can afford us such opportunities: to bundle under an extra layer of soft fabric, or assemble new outfits by throwing together pieces we wouldn't pair otherwise. It's cold out there; sometimes you have to get creative. And so, on a chilly Sunday early in December, I’ve gathered a small group of people together at Modern Supply Co. to talk about their sense of style and self expression, and how winter plays into that.